Super Hero!
by UsurperOfTruth
Summary: To be a symbol of peace and justice, to bring hope to those without, that is what it means to be a Hero!
1. Heroics 1-1

Heroics 1.1

Why the heck was she doing this again?

Dodging another swing from the scaled claw that was gradually becoming bigger than her torso, she responded with a strong jab with her white gloved fist that pushed him back much further than what someone with her rather lanky frame should be able to. Super-powers didn't care much about appearances as she had found out.

"Justice Combo!"

Lashing out with a flurry of jabs much faster than her previous ones that kept Lung away from her, she hit all over his body with blows meant incapacitate him. She could hear the sounds of bones breaking, and she hoped that would be enough to put him down. However, when those bones snapped back into place or reformed as fast as they were broken, Taylor could feel herself losing ground a bit. Lung was currently around 10 ft, scaly and radiating flames off of his body like it was some sort of aura. Said flames had also set her white cape, that was formerly one of her old bed sheets before she had enchanted it, on fire.

The roaring from the gradually transforming parahuman Lung, who was currently becoming and more dragon-like as she tried to put out the flames on her cape, was causing her ears to ring a little bit. If she was being honest, when she had decided that she wanted to do this whole superhero thing she hadn't realized that the whole cheesy shtick that she had made for herself was going to be as hard to maintain as it was currently. This was rather scary despite the brave front she put on. Taylor'd like to think that this was Lung's fault, she had just wanted to go out and do her first patrol and she finds his gang ready to kill some kids. Lucky her.

Her senses blared at her, alerting her to the fact there was a large wave of flames being sent her way. Jumping over it, she allowed her body to contort around the scaled fist that had tried to grab her as she lashed out with a kick that made Lung's head snap backwards. Landing on her feet, she followed up with a hay-maker to Lung's chest that sent him skidding backwards. However, he still seemed ready to keep fighting her. She knew she should've finished this earlier, but no she had underestimated the amount of strength she'd need to take him out and had held back with her first attack.

"Hahaha!" She let out a hearty laugh that she had practiced many nights before going out to get what she thought to be the most heroic sound out of it, though currently it was being used to mask the worried feeling she had currently. "Lung, you are truly a worthy adversary. However, once you decided that you would commit villainy infront of me, this battle was already decided. Turn yourself in now or prepare for my ultimate attack!" Posing dramatically, she pointed a finger at him.

Lung stood there for a moment, the flames coming off of him dying down a bit as she held her pose. Maybe he had been cowed by her display of heroics and would gracefully turn himself in to the PRT? When the flames exploded off of him, and he let out what she could only assume to be a primal scream of rage at the fact that he was facing such an amazing hero. He rushed forward her at a speed that severely belied his size and the fact that he was gradually becoming covered in more and more scales along with other changes.

"'ll 'ill 'ou!" The transformations that were occurring to his jaw, made Lung's speech a sort of garbled mess, but Taylor still understood what he had said.

She felt like she should've been scared hearing that he was planning to try an kill her, but instead there was just a wild thumping in her chest. A sense of exhiliration at being in danger while trying to fight the good fight made her grin even as Lung rushed towards her much faster than before. Had this been the her of only a few months ago she would've cowered in fear at the giant scaled fist that was reaching out to slash her in half, but...she was no longer that meek little girl anymore. She was a hero! Clenching her fist tightly she grinned widely as she shouted out the name of her attack.

"JUUUUSSSTICCEEE SMASH!"

As her fist smashed into Lung's chin with explosive force, a sonic boom expanded outwards which should have kicked up massive amounts of debris however it did not, a weird aspect of her ability seemed that so long as she didn't want to cause collateral damage she didn't. What was even more noticeable was the huge pressurized wave of air that shot upwards from her attack. As Lung's head snapped back from the force, she could also feel the ability that she had imbued her gloves with taking effect. It was sort of like a super powered relaxant, much too strong for the average person and weaker capes, but up against an opponent that had regeneration on Lung's scale or a sufficient Brute rating it was perfect.

Lung swayed on his feet for a moment, reeling from not only the powerful attack he had been hit by, but also the relaxant working its way through his system faster, she hoped it was faster, than his regeneration could flush it out. For a moment she waited with bated breath to see if she would have to continue the fight, but after what felt like an eternity Lung dropped to the ground. Standing completely still for a moment, Taylor tried to take in what she had just done. That had been a large gambit on her part because that really was the closest thing she had to an ultimate attack, that was all the strength she currently had given herself, but even more so she was really lucky that the relaxant had worked. If it hadn't, she wasn't sure if she could have knocked him out before he evolved too much. More importantly though, she had managed to not only beat Lung on her first real night out, but also managed to do so with minimum collateral damage.

She was going to be the greatest Superhero ever! Well, at least as well known as people like Armsmaster, but if she could keep giving good showings like this she could totally be regarded as being Triumvirate level one day. Maybe she could even team up with Alexandria! As Taylor thought about her future as a Superhero, it did not go unnoticed by her current super-hearing that there were voices that were coming from atop one of the buildings and a motorcycle that was currently maybe five minutes away currently.

"You guys up on atop of the building!" She said pointing towards the building where she heard at least three voices speaking. Jumping with just a bit of her current strength was more than enough for her to get on atop of the building with ease. Looking around she made note of the people that were on the building.

There was a girl wearing a skintight black-and-lavender outfit, with an emblem of a stylized eye on her chest, and a mask that covered the upper portion of her face. Her dark blonde hair was still visible, however she had a tense look on her face as if she was worried about something.

There was guy standing right next to the previous girl, his costume was basically motorcycle leathers and a helmet, the helmet was a stylized skull, done in an inky black. It was a cool design, but she noted that it was also pretty villainous looking. Just like the girl he was rather tense too, but with the way he was positioned, Taylor felt like he was ready to run off. She should use one of her charges on getting a better ability at reading people, it would really help with talking to people.

A little bit behind the two and propping themselves up with what looked to be a scepter, there was a...guy? Maybe? Taylor wasn't all that sure because there outfit left them rather androgynous looking. The person was wearing a white mask, a silver coronet, a ruffled white shirt, and skintight leggings tucked into knee-high boots.

Lastly was another sort of androgynous person, but Taylor was leaning more towards this person being a girl. They were wearing a cheap dog mask, and next to them were three large deformed vaguely dog monsters. Looks like she had a really strange power, dog monsters would be hard to market as anything but villainous. Taylor could only assume this group was comprised of villains, but she wouldn't give away her suspicions immediately.

"So were you the one Lung tried to attack? I can only assume so with how tense most of you are, well hold onto your fear no longer! For I, have bested him and have subdued him with my powers. Hahaha!" She laughed merrily as she crossed her arms underneath her newly developed chest. Call her petty, but she had decided to use her powers to gradually give herself something of a figure. She wasn't Emma, but she had boobs now! ...She was so happy that she had gotten over, somewhat, the excitement from her little upgrades. It'd be really embarrassing if she didn't keep these thoughts strictly in her head, it'd really put a damper on er image too.

"Well, we're thankful for that really, but as it stands we need to leave. You know how it goes, seeing as you probably have already figured out that we're villains and you're most certainly not a villain." The girl in the skintight suit said after a few moments.

Taylor nodded her head at that statement and was about to speak about how they could choose to not be villains, only to be cut off by a thick fog of darkness. She knew she should've kept with her gut instincts and put one of her charges into a power that could see through something like this, but it wouldn't stop her for too long. Her super-hearing was good enough that she could track the sounds of the giant dog monsters cracking the roof as they jumped from it, preparing to jump after she stopped once she remembered that Lung was still down on the pavement unconscious. She'd have to get those guys later, as her hearing alerted her to the motorcycle pulling up onto the street where the fight had taken place earlier.

Dropping down from the building she was on, she landed softly despite not bracing herself in any notable way. Looking towards the bike, she could see a man in a sort of blue ad white power armor getting off of it. On his back was a six-foot long spear-like weapon, so this is what Armsmaster looked like in real life she thought to herself. Maybe she could get an autograph after this?

Walking over towards Lung carefully, he poked at him with his spear thing before looking towards Taylor.

"You the one who managed to do this?" He called out to her after a moment.

"Yeah, I managed to beat him before he got too strong to fight. I used a sort of super power tranquilizer to put him to sleep, and he should be knocked out for at least another hour. I'm not too sure though seeing as this is the first time I got to test it out." She rambled slightly to the man whose face was on a pair of her underwear.

"Hmm, you're telling the truth." The it was phrased made me think that instead of mere speculation on his part his statement was definitive. Though that brought up the idea of how exactly he was absolutely sure of her statement. "You have a name yet?"

Yes! She could finally do her introduction! Squeeing internally, she twirled in spot as she activated the minor aerokinesis enchanted onto her cape, making it flutter as if a breeze was present. As she crossed her arms, and smiled a bright toothy smile, the blues and whites of her costume seemed accentuated as if a spotlight had been placed on her. The gold star on her chest practically gleamed as she stopped her twirling and spoke.

"I'm Captain Paragon, and I am a Superhero!"


	2. Heroics 1-2

**Heroics 1.2**

"Huh, that's an...interesting name." Armsmaster said after a moment.

She had totally nailed it! Even Armsmaster was awed by her amazing Superhero introduction, she knew that spending all that time on getting just the right amount of wind to blow on her cape and twirling around just right to make her appear within the most heroic light. Oh gosh, she thought to herself, as she realized that Arsmaster was currently talking to her and she had been pretty much ignoring him. Okay Taylor, just pretend that you didn't miss whatever he had just said to you and continue the conversation like you were listening.

"...is this your first time out on patrol here? Your certainly a new face to Brockton."

"Yes! I mean, uh yeah this my first time going out on patrol. I've been fixing up my costume because my previous one was kind of...bad." She internally winced at the memory of the garish bright pink that she had mistakenly got her costume stuck as after not being specific with the enchantment she'd given it. Her power was odd in that she had to be really clear in her intent with what she wanted the items she enchanted to have ability-wise, other wise she might get something that wasn't exactly what she wanted.

"I could see how that could be an issue, usually most heroes are given a costume from the PRT after including some of there own input or alternatively independents have recently been known to order them from the parahuman Parian." He stated.

"Well, I'm pretty content with the costume I've made now. It took me a really long time to get this one up to my standards, and I'd rather not have to waste all of the time and effort that I put into making my Hero costume. Besides, my costume is the symbol of heroism!" She struck another pose as she finished, this time placing her hands on her hips. A classic pose if she had to describe it, one used by heroes like Wonder Woman and Superman and sometimes even The Flash. Well, they didn't really exist and they were in comics, but they were some if her biggest guides as to what one should strive to be when being a hero. Taylor had only gotten a fascination in them in the last year or so because of her Dad, but they were still precious to her. They'd been the push she needed to fix her life, even if it was little by little.

"Yes, I can understand that. I've put more time than anyone has into improving my gear." Armsmaster said in a goodhearted manner before pausing for a moment and turning back to look at Lung. "As much as I would like to continue this, it is more important however that I no longer avoid the big issue here. You defeated Lung, something that hasn't decisively been done for quite some time now. I'm going to take him and make sure he's locked up, however there is a matter of whether or not you think that you should be included in the report or not. Before you get up in arms, what you've done tonight is a good thing. However, the repercussions will more than likely include the ire of the entire ABB along with making a sort of void of power that the other gangs present will sense. When they find out who defeated Lung, they'll be doing everything in their power to take you down. This is all a possibility for the most part, however it is a very likely possibility. I'm willing to exclude you from the report, or at least the public report if you think it would be better."

Wow, she thought, that was a lot to take in. Taylor really hadn't thought about it that much, she knew there were dangers to being a hero and all, but the thought of having an entire gang possibly after her was worrying. She was strong, strong enough that she could put Lung down before he amped up to full blown rage dragon mode or at least put him to sleep before he could, however she wasn't all-knowing or all-seeing. Her domino mask gave her a bit of danger sense yes, but that didn't mean it would always be enough. Even worse than that was the fact that they might not just target her, if they could figure out places she hung out at or even hints at what her identity was they could attack those places. That meant her Dad could be in risk, ad that was something that she definitely didn't want.

However, a part of her argued that this was her chance to shine and make a great debut. Especially since she could see the unsaid motive of Armsmaster, if she didn't take the credit she was sure that Amrsmaster would do so. The chances of her ever getting a shot at such a great introduction into the world of superheroes were slim to none. Could she really give up this opportunity that was in front of her. Slapping her cheeks, maybe a bit too hard as they slightly stung, she focused herself. Of course she could give p this opportunity, she was a Hero! Heroes did what was right even if it was detrimental to them, she wouldn't place innocents in the way of harm just for a shot of fame! Taking a few seconds to recollect herself, she spoke.

"It seems like, at least for now, that the best thing to do would be to simply exclude my name from the public report. While I would like to come into the spotlight now, I simply don't think that it would currently be the best option for me in the situation I am now. I have people I need to protect." She said, a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to get the credit for defeating Lung on her first night out. She'd be back to step zero, but it was for the best ultimately.

Armsmaster smiled, it was a really nice smile she admitted to herself. He probably got a lot of women swooning after him in his public life if the other two-thirds of his face could match his smile. "I know that this must've been difficult, but I'm sure you'll look back on this moment and realize that the decision you made here today was a good one." Going over towards the still sleeping Lung, he loaded him onto his motorcycle before turning his head to face her. "If you ever need any assistance, call the PHQ and ask for me. I owe you one." Revving his bike up, he was off in seconds.

She waited a few moments, waiting right up until she could only vaguely hear the sound of the motorbike in the distance before she let out an exited squee of joy.

"I got to meet Armsmaster!" She jumped in joy at her very successful meeting with one of her childhood heroes, she couldn't believe that she had actually met him on the very first day that she went out on patrol. This was like one of those dream come true moments, maybe if her good luck continued she could meet Alexandria and maybe even get superhero tips from her. Whoever said you should never meet your heroes was wrong, because this was the best feeling in the world. Jumping around for a bit, Taylor stopped as she felt like she was forgetting something...something really important. Tapping her chin in thought, she let out a gasp as she realized it was really late. She needed to get home quickly, on the off chance her Dad woke up she didn't want to worry him about where she had went during the night.

Crouching slightly, she jumped a hard leap that sent her high into the sky. As she reached the apex of her jump, her house came into sight. Using the minor aerokinesis she had enchanted her cape with allowed her to turn what should have been a sudden fall into a guided glide. Looking down at the city as she slowly glided to her destination, she looked down at what it had become. Brockton used to be a place of beauty, and it still was in places, but over the years it just seemed to become worse and worse. The city was losing hope, people were getting mre and more used to the idea that gangs were present, that it was normal. She'd change that. This was the start of her hero career, and it was a superhero's job to give people hope. So for all the people that lost hope, she just will have to show them that hope never dies.


	3. Heroics 1-3

**Heroics 1.3**

Her alarm clock went off at around 5 o'clock, signaling that it was time to get up for her morning routine. It was a weekday, which meant it was also a school day. As she moved to get up out of bed, a wave of fatigue hit her. The previous night seemed to hit her much harder when she had actually gotten home, which had only been about four hours ago or so, as she had fell asleep almost immediately once she had hit her bed. Luckily enough, she hadn't forgot to take off her costume.

She hadn't decided when she was going to tell her Dad about her trying to be a superhero. Every time she had thought about doing it, the words just seemed to get stuck in her throat. Taylor was a bit afraid of how he would take it, he'd collapsed inwards when her Mom had died and was only getting back to his old self now because she was doing her best to make a connection between the two of them. Superheroes, like Spider-Man, had some family problems but he'd not decided to reveal himself to his Aunt for many reasons. If only comic books held the answer she needed.

No, if she continued this train of thought she'd get nowhere, slapping her cheeks to wake herself up the rest of the way she hopped out of the bed. Gotta think positive, she thought to herself, even if things were difficult there was always some way to figure out what to do. But, first before she did anything else, she definitely needed to take a shower. You couldn't start the day by being sweaty and unclean after all, superheroes practiced good hygiene.

After a relatively quick shower, she started to put on her workout clothes; her glasses that were secured with a sports bands, some gray sweatpants, some slightly beat-up running sneakers, and a tank-top. Heading down the steps, she quickly went into the kitchen and opened up the fridge. Her dad would have to go shopping soon, they didn't have much n the way of breakfast foods, but she did spy some bacon and bread. Maybe some bacon sandwiches could be good? Taking out the bread she proceeded to put it in the toaster, not actually pressing the button down however, and got started on her stretches.

"Victory!" She said a bit loudly, her arms raised high in a V as she finished up her stretches.

"Good morning, kiddo."

Turning around, she could see her dad coming down the steps in his black bathrobe. Her dad wasn't the most attractive person in the world, but she was happy that he no longer looked like he was under a large amount of stress. For years after Mom had died, her Dad had always looked a little beaten down by the world and just a bit bewildered, Mom's death had hit him much harder and for sometime she had thought that he wouldn't recover. After she had got her powers though, one of the first things she had did was give a ring that she had enchanted, it would improve his health and whittle the stress away a bit. She'd also taking to speaking more with her Dad and trying to reconnect with him, they'd even went and got phones recently! She was sure he was getting better, even if it was a slow process.

"G'morning, Dad." She smiled slightly as he came a planted a kiss on her forehead.

"You going to do your morning exercises now?"

"Yeah, I already put some bread in the toaster for when I get back. Maybe you could make some bacon and we could have sandwiches?"

Her Dad put his finger on his chin, as if he was thinking about what he should say to her before smiling and going over to the fridge and pulling out the bacon. "This might be a it unhealthy, but seeing as I haven't made it awhile I think I can make an exception. Do you want some scrambled eggs to go along with it?"

"Yeah, sure!" Taylor said as she finished tying up her shoes.

"You have your pepper spray?"

"Of course Dad." She patted her right pocket where the pepper spray was.

"Alright then, be safe Taylor." He said, with emphasis on the be safe.

"No need to worry Dad, I will." She felt a pang of guilt as she had been anything but safe last night. "I'll be back in about 20 minutes." And she was off, breaking into a well paced jog as she made it past the chain link fence.

The run helped her wake-up a bit, the wave of fatigue that she felt earlier was nothing but a distant memory. Getting home she continued her routine with thirty push-ups, forty sit-ups, and fifty squats. Eating breakfast with her Dad she thought about why she kept up her routine. While her power allowed her to enchant items with super powers that she could then use herself, she didn't want to become overly reliant on it. A sound superhero, relies on a sound mind and a sound body. There could be a time when her powers were made unusable, or they were negated by someone and she would need some way to protect herself without them. That was something that had happened a few times in comics, like Superman had a weakness to kryptonite and it was exploited really often. She didn't know if she had a weakness like his, but not having her enchanted items with her could definitely be considered a weakness.

As she thought that, she felt her "charges" for the day come to her. These "charges" were what allowed her to enchant items with superpowers. Taylor could still remember when she had enchanted a pencil to be everlasting, she still used it actually. She would probably spend these charges on her suit again, maybe more strength and durability, or maybe she should start investing in other items? Her cape gave her minor aerokinesis and was durable enough that it should be bullet-proof, her costume itself was the source of her Brute powers. She didn't know exactly how strong she was, but her fight last night had proven that she was at least as strong as Lung in his kind of amped up form. So, what should she spend these new charges on?

"Hey, Taylor, it's almost time for you go to school. Hurry up and finish your breakfast, so you can get dressed." Her Dad said, snapping her out of her line of thought. She got so consumed in thinking about what to use her powers on she'd need to fix that habit of hers.

"Alright Dad." Quickly finishing up her breakfast she rushed up stairs. Getting out of her work-out clothes she put on a white blouse and some dark green cargo pants along with a small cheap ring she'd enchanted with healing and enhanced reflexes, grabbing her back-pack she rushed back downstairs. Giving her dad a hug, she rushed out the door saying a loud "Goodbye!" to her dad. She had a bus to catch and school to get to, the most mundane stuff that she did as of late.

Getting to school seemed like it took only seconds, though maybe that was because she was busy wondering about what she would do after her last night out. Would she patrol later tonight? Most heroes joined groups that did stuff together and handled major villainy through a system, she didn't really have such a way so patrols would have to cut it for now. Beware evildoers, for you soon shall have to face justice!

"Oh, hey Hebert." A not-so-playful punch to her shoulder made Taylor sigh and turn around. Of course the person who hit her was her kind of friend Sophia Hess, and Taylor's best friend Emma Barnes. She'd have to deal with school for now, those villains were safe for just a bit longer.


	4. Heroics 1-4

**Heroics 1.4**

Being friends with these two was kind of weird for Taylor if she was being completely honest. Emma had issues, it was clear to her and probably even Sophia to some extent, those issues were mostly caused by the incident that she had gotten into the summer before they had started highschool. It had caused her to try and break connections with Taylor, but Taylor refused. Taylor saw that if she let herself get pushed away it could possibly be the end of their friendship and not only that, but Emma was traumatized or something. It was the responsibility of friends to look out for each other, but more importantly it was the job a hero to help people. Even if she only got her powers awhile after her Mom died, when she had...nope she wasn't going to think about that anymore. So, she had took it upon herself to figure out what had happened. From repeatedly going over to her house, to following her around school, to eventually confronting her about the issue. It had been tough, really tough but whenever she felt ready to give up, she had felt her heroes pushing her to keep trying. It took awhile, but she fixed things even if Emma had become a little...clingy.

Sophia was a whole can of worms of her own. She had been the one that had been backing Emma's decision to cut her off making the process even worse for Taylor. Sophia...there was something wrong with her too, Taylor didn't know exactly what it was. It was like she held disdain for anyone she saw as being weak, and it gave her this really screwy world view. It was actually the main reason that Sophia had been trying to aggravate her so much, or at least that was Taylor thought, she seemed to think that Taylor was weak in her mindset. Taylor couldn't help but remember how they had settled there dispute, getting into a fight with a Track-Star had definitely been a bad idea. She had gotten bruised up pretty bad, but Sophia also had a black-eye, that was the last time she tried the way of making friends described in the webcomics she read every now and then. They worked, but darn did it hurt. Now she had to just put up with Sophia's aggressive form of friendship. Taking a bite of the sandwich Emma had made for her, she thought about what exactly she could to understand Sophia better.

"Taylor, were you listening?"

"Huh?"

"Come on Taylor," Emma whined from her seat next to her. "I was asking if you would be up to going to the mall with meafter school is over. This new store opened up recently and I was thinking that we could go and get some cute clothes, I saw this especially cute looking dress that you would look good in. So how bout it Taylor, you gonna come with me?"

Taylor didn't even really like dresses like that, and she doubted that she'd be able to afford more than a couple shirts or jeans, but looking into Emma's eye she could see the hint of worry and that was enough for her to nod a little wearily. A hero's job was a tough one to say the least.

"Yay!" Grabbing hold Taylor's arm, Emma proceeded to nuzzle it happiness.

"I'll be coming with." Sophia said in a tone that would not allow any argument.

Taylor promptly tried her hardest to ignore the death glare that she was getting from Sophia as Emma held onto her arm for the rest of the lunch period, seemingly lost in her own little happy world. She also tried to ignore the whispers she could make out a couple tables away in the lunchroom about her and Emma were a couple which Sophia seemed to hear as well which resulted in her glare becoming glacial. A hero knew when to pick their battles, and this was simply a battle that could not be won. Truly, being a hero was the hardest of tasks.

After her rather easy classes, which was less a result of cheating and more that she actually studied her butt off when she really tried, Taylor found herself at the most dreaded of places. The mall, a place where you could find yourself buying clothes you didn't even know you wanted or useless knick-knacks that you were tricked into buying, truly this place was a hero's worst enemy. Money problems were serious in the comic book hero world, simply ask Peter Parker. However, seeing the happy look on Emma's face as she led Taylor and Sophia, who was making sure that the contact between Taylor and Emma was kept at a minimum, was worth it she thought.

"Ooh, how about this?" Emma had somehow taken them into a store without Taylor noticing and was currently holding up a red dress, it looked nice.

"It would look good on you." Both Taylor and Sophia said at the same time.

"Oh, well if you both think so I think I'll buy it then. Let me just go try it on, you both go sit on the benches and wait for me."

And so it was with great amounts of awkwardness that Taylor and Sophia found themselves waiting for their mutual friend to finish on trying on the new dress, but Taylor knew she'd probably find more along the way, and get back to them. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife because it was so thick, Taylor really didn't know if her and Sophia were actually all cleared up. Sophia would always give her this evaluating look when she thought Taylor wasn't looking, like she was trying to figure her out or something. It was unnerving, but even more awkward were the times when it felt like she wanted to say something to her but couldn't. Maybe...maybe she just needed a conversation starter. Okay Taylor, she thought to herself, we can do this. Just have to find some way to talk to her. Looking around the store it felt like she could find nothing that she could try and talk to Sophia about, she decided to improvise.

"Sooo...who's your favourite hero?"

"What?"

"I mean, like, do you have a favourite hero from comic books or something?"

"You...you still read comic books. I should've expected."

"Hey, don't knock the comic books! They're some of the most coolest things I've read and teach me so much."

At Taylor's somewhat flustered response, Sophia just stared at her, and after a moment something unexpected happened. Sophia started laughing. _Sophia_ started laughing. Taylor didn't know how to feel that she might've just accidentally triggered the apocalypse with her love of comic books. While she was panicking entirely on how the heck she was going to diffuse such a bomb, Sophia's laughter slowly died down until she had a small smile on her face.

"Man, this is all sorts of fucked. If you must know, my favorite hero would have to be Batman."

"What? That guy's barely a hero sometimes." Taylor responded unconsciously.

"Hey! He does what he needs to get his city cleaned up."

"Other heroes do that too and they don't have to be nearly as dark and broody as he is, neither do they have to go to extreme lengths and badly hurt normal people to do that most of the time."

From there the conversation devolved into who's hero was better, and things such as why Batman was totally the hero that Brockton deserved or why Flash was one of the greatest heroes of time and to even more mundane things such as what powers would it be cool to have from the comic books. When Emma arrived to see her two best friends engaged in a heated debate she thought they'd fight again, instead there were smiles on their face as they argued. Maybe they'd get along after all.


	5. Heroics 1-5

**Heroics 1.5**

Taylor flopped down onto her bed as soon as she got home.

Today had been nice, but exhausting. After she had argued with Sophia she was sure they had bonded a bit, not a whole bunch but she definitely felt like it was a step in the right direction. Emma had promptly came back in the new dress she had bought somewhere in the middle of that, and showed that she was still definitely model material. She could make anything look good, though oddly she felt that Sophia's gaze lingered a bit too long on Emma. Sophia totally had a crush on Emma...oh god she was such a nerd, who used the word totally anymore? Anyway, Sophia at the very least probably had some feelings for Emma which was fine with Taylor.

Getting her clingy best friend a life partner who could put up with her situation was a good thing, a better thing seeing as Sophia was the person that had helped Emma out first. Summer Camp had made it a certainty that Taylor was indisposed for awhile, something she kind of regretted. Emma had cracked hard, trying to change who she was at a fundamental level to try and move past what happened...it wasn't healthy. Taylor hadn't had her powers for long then, but she felt like she could've protected her like one of the heroes she and Emma used to pretend to be. Sometimes, you can't save everyone nor can you be there for everyone, but Taylor thought that you could at least try and help when able.

Her laptop picked that time to notify her that she had a message on PHO, a little ding sound being her notification noise. The laptop had been something she managed to buy a few weeks ago, saving up money and doing a bit of manual labor for her neighbors over the course of the past 3 months along with her Dad chipping in had been just enough to buy her the refurbished light blue laptop. It wasn't anything too high-end, having only decent RAM and okay specs, but it was something that she had worked hard for. There were little stickers adorning the front of it; Alexandria, Spider-Man, and a hand-made peace symbol.

Getting up she stretched lightly, her legs aching just a little bit from the 2 hours of walking around the mall. Walking over to her desk, she sat down in the slightly uncomfy chair and pulled up her messages keen on seeing who exactly had sent a message to her.

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 **Private message from UOTruth:**

 **UOTruth:** Hey, Miss Reporter, have you heard about the fight that broke out by the Bay a few days ago? As of late you and Bagrat have been the ones on top of stuff like this, so I just thought I should let you know if you already didn't. You can check out the thread here, maybe you can input some info that's not already known or something.

 **ReporterLane** ***New Message*:** Oh, I'll get right on it. I didn't know a thread was already made.

 **UOTruth** ***New Message*:** Don'tcha know? PHO never sleeps. Heck it's probably more reliable than the news at this point. I still believe an AI secretly runs this sight.

 **ReporterLane** ***New Message*:** Stop being silly. Anyways, I'll check out the thread and see if I can use my sleuth abilities to piece some things together that people don't now about yet.

Opening up a new tab after she finished replying, she reached and grabbed a simple ring off her desk, slipping it on she could feel herself get smarter. Well, not really, more like she felt like things around her were making a bit more sense. The ring was what she used when she tried to figure things out, it allowed her to more easily find pieces of info that linked things together but only if she could piece it together with the info available. It was useful for figuring out things like math problems, or the occasional who likes who among other things.

Looking up and down the thread, she saw that there wasn't really a lot of public information known about what happened. From what she could see, essentially Taylor's fight with Lung was shrouded within mystery. Armsmaster officially stated that himself and an unaffiliated Parahuman, who wished to remain unnamed, from out-of-state had managed to take down Lung, nabbing himself some credit and also preserving Taylor's anonymity. It was a decent excuse if Taylor was honest, if anybody was overly suspicious they'd be chasing after shadows for the most part, and would have to take some time to figure out the truth behind the situation.

Now, whilst she could shed a bit of light on how exactly Lung was taken down (the leading theories being that either Armsmaster had made a new super-power weapon or that the unknown cape had some sort of nullifying ability), that wouldn't be good for her as people would ask questions about how she knew and in this case she couldn't think of some sort of misdirection to give. Alas, this Reporter wouldn't be able to give the people the truth this time, it was for the best. Some of the death threats that had apparently been up there were pretty frightening.

Closing her laptop, she decided to think about what she should do later on the PHO front. She wasn't really feeling up to doing much sleuthing anyways, the yawn Taylor let out as she stretched agreed with her. Well, what should she do now, she thought to herself as she stood up. She could go to sleep, but then she'd just be wasting time she could be using on other more important stuff. She still wasn't precisely sure what she wanted to spend her charges on either, though more than likely they'd go into improving her aerokinesis or making her faster. Hmm, heading downstairs she checked the time on the clock in the living room.

[5:31 PM]

It was still light out, so maybe she could go pick up some snacks or something and go and watch movies or something. There was a small convenience store that wasn't too far away so she it'd only be about maybe a fifteen minute walk at most if she walked slowly, and more likely a ten minute walk depending on if there were other customers or if she had to stop for something. Yeah, the more she thought about it the more it sounded like a good idea. Quickly writing a note for her Dad if he got back home before she was back, she pinned it to the fridge.

Throwing her shoes on and grabbing her wallet and keys, she was out the door in minutes. It was still a little chilly outside, but she had thought ahead and brought a cream colored jacket. Ha! Take that Mother Nature! Justice is always vigilant. A gust of wind that proceeded to seemingly slap her in the face with leaves made her take her statement back, especially when she realized there were barely any leaves on the ground. Perhaps she should not pick fights with the friendly neighborhood nature.

As she walked she hummed a light tune, nothing specific just some melody she'd heard when she had been trawling through YouTube for something interesting to watch. She watched as people walked by carrying about their own respective business and even some people going past her on their bikes, it was a pretty decent walk as far as she was concerned. Reaching the store, she walked in and quickly went into the aisle with all of the snacks and candy. It was beautiful, but alas she knew what she had come here for and would refuse the urge to spend the rest of her meager amount of cash. Paying for a bag of chips and a soda she was on her way home in record time.

It was on her way home, as she hummed the same melody that she stopped in her tracks.

"..et...creep!"

There was a voice. She didn't have much of her gear with her, but fortunately she had imbued her glasses with minor super hearing along with a few other things.

"Get the...off me!"

"...hut up...i'll make..."

Swiveling her head around she tried to figure out where exactly the sound was coming from. Moving closer to where she thought she heard it from she could make out the sounds a little clearer. Before she could think about it much her legs started moving on their own as she started running towards whatever crime was currently happening. It was only a minute or so before she arrived on the scene, it was a kind of dark alley-way but the light from the not yet setting sun illuminated enough for Taylor to see what was happening.

It was two white guys trying to drag some Asian girl into a van. One of the guys was bald with a bit of a pudgy gut, but more noticeable was the tattoo on his skull and the muscle he had. The other guy was lanky, with wild messy brown hair, he didn't have anything to really distinguish him by except for the metal pipe that was in his hand. The girl was struggling heavily, but it was almost guaranteed that they were going to get her into that van, well if Taylor hadn't been here.

Okay, Taylor, calm down and focus she said to herself inwardly. You have about 10 or 15 seconds befre they manage to get the girl in the van, and you're going to stop that. What did she have to stop that? Enhanced hearing, a danger sense, enhanced dexterity, and enhanced reflexes plus five unspent charges. Okay she could make this work. It was time to be a hero.

Running full speed she jumped and hit the guy who was holding a metal pipe with a punch to the skull that Batman would definitely be proud of. However, it wasn't nearly enough to get the guy to drop the pipe, but his focus was on her now. Good. She let her instincts take hold as she dodge out of the way of the strike with the pipe and pivoted on her right foot and lashing out with a spinning side kick. Watching the guy drop the pipe as held his side in pain she made to grab for the pipe only for her danger sense to flare up.

Dodging the grapple that came from behind her she spun and tried to punch the big guy square in his face, however he was ready for that. Moving his head just a bit, he grabbed her arm pulled her forward a bit and lashed out with a punch to her chest. Not having many options, she started moving before the punch connected and kicked the guy hard in his knee. She grit her teeth as pain blossomed in her side from where she was hit, but reassured her that the guy was hurting just as much as she was from how his knee buckled.

Looking towards the girl, Taylor saw that she was currently trying to wrestle away a metal pipe from the other gangster. Running over she punched the guy in his ribs twice making him let the pipe go and wrenched the pipe free for herself and proceeded to turn around just as the big guy got back up. He was sent right back down to the ground as the pipe hit him in his family jewels, Taylor winced a little at the decidedly female scream of pain that came from his mouth as he fell. Hitting the other guy similarly to make sure he was down for the count, Taylor turned to the the Asian girl who was looking at her bewildered.

"Are you alright?" Taylor refused the ham that wanted to flow naturally, she wasn't in costume currently therefore doing anything that could possibly link her to being Captain Paragon was a big no-no.

"Uh...yeah." The Asian girl said as she got up off the ground.

Getting a better look at her, she was a young woman with pale blue eyes and straight black hair. She had a sort of vindicated look on her face as she looked down at the injured thugs that had tried to more than likely kidnap her. She looked to be a few years older than Taylor actually, but they were of similar enough height that it was hard to be sure of.

"So what brought about all of well...this?"

"Fucking assholes were trying to "show me my place" and "teach me respect". More likely the shitheads were going to beat my ass up and then dump me in the bay hoping that it'd be enough to get rid of me. Just because I disrespected their stupid ass Empire 88, fucking idiots. I was in a bit of a shitty situation before you showed up karate girl, lucky me I get the one passer-by that knows how to kick some ass." She grinned widely at the end of the statement.

Taylor blushed a little at the praise, but quickly shook it away. She still needed to call the cops on these guys, otherwise they'd just get back up and try to do this to someone else later.

"Could you call the police, Miss? I'll make sure these guys don't get up and go anywhere."

"Uh huh, sure karate kid." Pulling out her phone she quickly dialed the number. "If the police are good for anything, it's keeping fucking pricks like this of the street for awhile." The last was mumbled to herself, but Taylor was still able to hear it as clear as day.

"Hey my name's not karate kid, it's Taylor." She couldn't help but correct.

"Make sure not to call me Miss then, I'm only like a couple years older than you at max. Name's Homura, now I gotta talk to the government assholes to make sure these regular assholes get there sorry ass sent to jail. Hopefully, the government assholes aren't too bad today."

It sounded like the Asian girl had a bit of a problem with the local law enforcement, no...more like she didn't seem to believe in their capabilities from the tone of voice that she used. Taylor could only guess why, maybe she had been in a situation where the police had let her down? Well, whatever it was, it wasn't really her business. She was more worried about how she was going to explain to her Dad that she got caught up in this sort of mess. Truly being a hero had its ups and downs.


	6. Heroics 1-6

**Heroics 1.6**

The police arrived only about ten minutes after Homura had called them.

During that time Taylor only had to hit the big guy once and take the skinny one's phone away so that he couldn't call somebody to try and rescue them before the police came. Taylor counted that as a win, especially since she had to be a bit rougher than she was used to due to not having any of her really good gear with. While some heroes were fine with this, she personally didn't like being all that violent against normal people. However, without revealing herself as a parahuman, she'd like to think that she had done the best that she possibly could have. But, a power that allowed her to learn martial arts fast or something would definitely have been helpful for more efficient take-downs.

"Miss, could we please ask you some questions?"

The police officer that came up to me had a badge stating that he was one Office Edward Brock. He was in his thirties from first glance, and was wearing a dark blue police uniform. He had a polite air about him, but knowing that he was a police officer assured me that he could be stern if necessary. The friendly smile he had was reassuring to her that he wasn't going to be mean at the very least.

"Of course."

"Alright then, I just wanna ask some basic questions that I want you to answer to the best of your abilities."

The questions he asked were simple things like how did she stumble upon the scene, what exactly was happening when she had, what she had done to help Homura, and stuff further in that vein. Taking down all of her responses, the officer and his partners that came with him loaded the thugs into their squad car and told us that they may need to call us depending on how the situation goes and told us to give them a number they should contact us at. Homura gave them what I presumed was her cell number, I gave them my home number which I hoped I'd be able to pick up first if it came to it. It'd be kind of hard to explain to Dad that I'd saved someone from some thugs who were apparently trying to kidnap them.

After the police officers left it was just me and Homura there, and my groceries of course. I had put them off to the side before I had intervened, my snacks were very important after all. Not as important as another person was, but still pretty important.

"So, Taylor huh? You kicked some serious ass back there. I wouldn't think a thin white girl like yourself to be able to scrap like that. You do karate or something?"

"Uh, no. I've just watched a lot of TV and read a lot of comics, I just copy those and do what feels natural."

"Guess that saying that TV rots your brain is fucking wrong if you can do shit like that. Almost makes me want to find some way to do something like that too, but meh. I'll just make sure that the next time some freaking Empire dickheads try and assault me I have a surprise or two that'll make them rethink their life choices." Homura said darkly.

"I hope you don't mean anything that could end up killing someone."

"Nah, nothing like that. Government assholes would have a chance of pinning it on me if I ever slipped up and that'd be stupid, one thing you'll quickly find out is that I'm far from stupid. A taser or even just a baton or something should be fine for just protecting myself, so don't think too much about it." She said as she ran a hand through her casually.

Taylor was sure she wasn't being completely honest. Homura wasn't directly looking at her and the flippant way she had responded to her seemed more to assuage Taylor's worries more than anything, she could only hope her new potential friend didn't decide that escalating like that was the only way to keep herself safe. Taylor wouldn't say anything for now, but if it came up again she'd make sure she got the truth. Even friends can lie, especially those who believe that they know what's best.

"Well...I guess I should get going then. Homura, are you gonna be safe getting home or should I walk with you to make sure something like that doesn't happen again?"

"Heh, well aren't you just a regular little hero. Sure, why not? I'd rather have back-up if some more bullshit happens."

With that they started walking towards Homura's house. Along the way, Taylor found out that Homura was currently going to college for engineering. She was also really, really smart. Half of the stuff she had said about what she was doing totally flew right over her head, an item to help her learn stuff faster might be seeing some use in the future if she kept having to listen to Homura. Homura also was doing a work-study program where she worked with different established engineers and worked on her own projects. She seemed to enjoy it, but she was annoyed by some of the stipulations they had set, such as not making explosives. Taylor refused to comment on that.

Another important thing that Taylor learned was that Homura really, really liked explosions. She was able to tell her how bombs/missiles/and other things that generally went boom and how they worked along with what their purpose was. Taylor was sure that if she was able to blow stuff up legally, Homura definitely would. After that they talked about random stuff like their food and other random topics that Taylor probably would forget if she didn't think about them for too long, eventually they got to the topic of age.

"What the hell? You're 15? Damn, I swear you were like 17 or 18 or something."

"Heh..." Rubbing the back of her hand in embarrassment Taylor spoke. "Well, I guess I come off a bit older than what I really am. Though my birthday is coming up in a few months, so I'll be 16 pretty soon."

"Guess you can't judge a book by its cover. Anyways, my house is right around the corner so you can start heading home. But, first...here." Pulling out a small piece of paper and pen, she wrote a series of numbers on it quickly and neatly. "That's my number. If you ever wanna chill or need something just give me a call alright?"

Giving her a nod in response, Taylor watched as the girl that she had rescued earlier walked off. When she had went out today, she had expected to hang out with her friends and chill at home, she didn't expect that something like this was going to happen. Certainly the life of a protagonist was one fraught with drama, surprise, and action! Just kidding, she was reading way to many web-comics to think that her life was something like that, she was thinking way too meta. Things like this could break the fourth-wall, which comics had taught her was generally a good way to ether go insane or have a good time. She didn't want to take her chances there.

On an unrelated note, how cool would it be for her to have her own comic book series? Like, it'd be a story about how the mighty paragon of justice Captain Paragon, or Paragon for short, gradually grew to become a hero of much renown who fixed the wrongs of the world while also of course being as hamtastic as possible. It'd be amazing, there'd even be drama but it would be a more lighthearted comic-no stop it Taylor. You can focus on that when you get home, she thought to herself. And so, after embarking on a quest to get snacks for movie night, Taylor returned home with snacks and a new friend obtained. Her first days of real heroing were a great success and her life was pretty good.

 _She was sure that things could only get better from here._


	7. Interlude 1

**Interlude 1**

 _She spun upon an axle that was balanced between two._

She hummed a tune to herself as she sat down at her table, drinking tea as she thought about all of the things that she had to do. Taylor and her had had a fun time today, she'd even managed to get some clothes for Taylor herself despite the fact that she wasn't a fan of receiving charity. However, Taylor rarely refused things that she asked nicely about, Taylor was a good friend. Too good of a friend for someone like her that had planned on ruining her life...Taylor was too nice for her own good. She gripped he teacup a little more tightly as she took another sip.

 _Those axles were her new world._

Emma could still remember the day vividly when Taylor had helped her. She had kept bothering her, trying to figure out what exactly had happened to her, and all Emma had wanted to do was to get her to shut up. To get her to stop trying to be nice to her, to get her to go away, all in the hopes of throwing away the memories that haunted her. Cold steel pressing against her skin and the pain; _searing, blistering, unbearable_ **_pain_**. Pain that was burned into her soul, becoming a part of her that changed her fundamentally. She was saved by Sophia at first, it was her whom had helped her in that moment. Her elegant hero of the night had saved her and she would of done so much to keep her near, but she stayed of her own will.

 _They kept her stable._

And then...there was Taylor. She had broken down all of Emma's barriers, all of the armor that she had put up to keep herself secure after her rebirth. Her beautiful, elegant, hero Taylor. If Sophia was the one who had picked up her pieces, then Taylor had pieced her back together with herself as the glue. She was Emma's day and Sophia was her night, but Taylor who was so kind so forgiving so transfixing was slowly and surely becoming her everything.

 _They were her everything._

Her heart sped up around her and butterflies fluttered in her stomach whenever she saw her beautiful, amazing, spectacular Taylor. It made the dull hues that had replaced her emotions fade away and soar into bliss, her breath hitched and her cheeks flushed as she thought about Taylor. She was a hero, someone that would be a force of good for everyone...so why? Why did she feel as if the world would one day take her away her angel? Visions of her being taken from her made her heart clench...and a part of her wanted to do _anything_ to prevent it.

 _She sipped her tea as those thoughts skittered across the room._

Taylor was hers. She was Emma's light, sun, her very meaning to live! She wouldn't let those visions come to pass, even if it meant she had to annihilate that golden light that was so often responsible for Taylor being taken away from her. She would utterly and completely obliterate whatever tried to take her away from Emma...even if she had to use this terrifying power that she had been given. Taylor belonged to her...she was hers...to love forever and...and...her breath hitched as her cheeks burned with an intensity that would make the sun jealous.

 _She was distorted._

It would take time. Even if she used her ability as it was now, it would take time and effort to get rid of all the threats to her stunning, beautiful, lovely Taylor. However, time was one of the things that meant little to nothing to her...after all she knew it'd be a simple task to simply control it to suit her purposes if necessary. And her amazing, gallant, stupendous Taylor had her own power as well! The voices told her this. Of course she would have a power, she'd been strong enough to live through the car crash that had killed her own mother. It was only natural. Tapping a finger against her chin a smile stretched across her face.

 _So she would distort the world to suit her needs._

She knew, she didn't know how she did, but Emma knew that as things were those visions would come to pass. That wouldn't occur so long as a single cell of her existed, she would not let it happen. The gears turned in her mind as ideas of thoughts that seemed so much her own, but not, told her what had to be done if she wanted things to go her way. They promised the happy end that she wished to achieve, even if it meant that she could possibly damn herself. What did it matter if she damned herself anyway? She knew she would simply allow herself to be pulled along by Sophia if Taylor were gone, Emma as she was now would simply cease to exist.

 _Otherwise, what even was the point to it all?_

She knew she was still broken. Not outwardly, but inwardly. Taylor was fixing that, as was Sophia, but she knew if Taylor vanished...she would lose all hope. A world without a sun wasn't a real world, and so a world without Taylor was much the same. The only option left would be to make a new world where things were right. The new world would only hold happiness and peace, but that was only one possibility. Currently, Emma had her eyes focused on the future. The future she would bend to her will.

 _She controlled all with enough time._

The clock stopped ticking as she got up from the floor. With time bending to her will it was only natural that all things around her would stop, the dull gray hues a fitting color she thought. Running a hand through her hair, she flicked it outwards. Taylor liked her long hair so she always made sure to take care of it, but more than that Taylor always smiled when she flicked her hair like this. She said it made her look heroic. Walking towards her window, it split itself open along with the wall as she jumped into the night, sealing behind her as if it hadn't just made a pathway for her to walk through. Emma's smile was an empty one as she began once more the process of changing things.

 _It was time to subjugate fate._


	8. Reaction 2-1

**Reaction 2.1**

[10:00 PM Saturday, April 22]

Things had escalated rather fast since Taylor had met up with Homura, that had been about two weeks ago.

With the capture of Lung, there had been much fighting between all three of the gangs in an attempt to either hold the territory that was being lost or try to gain more territory respectively. The ABB were having a hard time fight on two fronts, and Oni Lee apparently could only do but so much by himself. Without Lung or another cape, it was easy to see that the ABB were going to collapse sooner than later. The E88 made large pushes on one side, while the Merchants pounced like wolves on whatever scraps they possibly could. Now, having one gang on the verge of collapse would normally be a good thing in Taylor's book as it meant ultimately less violence for the rest of the city, but there had already been many innocent citizens caught up in the fighting. Something she would not tolerate.

Thus she found herself out on patrol, to stop villainy from gaining ground in Brockton.

"Stop right there villains!" Dropping down from the roof in front of the fleeing group of mooks dressed in the colors of the ABB, she shot them a look that stopped them in their tracks. "Running will not get you anywhere! Now please ready yourselves to be arrested."

"We weren't even doing anything you fucking bitch!"

"So you were not planning on using that very molotov in your hand on the coffee shop back there?" Taylor shot back with a raised eyebrow.

It was silent for a moment before one of the mook decided that they did not like how she had just responded to them and decided that it was time for guns, thus many mooks pulled out pistols and started opening fire.

Even as the bullets came flying towards her Taylor wasn't worried, her perception speeding up as the world around her seemingly slowed down. With her recent charges spent on increased speed and heavily enhanced reflexes it was no surprise as each of the bullets that were aimed at her were grabbed out of the air. While her boost to speed was rather significant, her reflexes were what really allowed her to grab the bullets, though no one else needed to know that. Had the mooks been using something like a Machine Gun or anything remotely faster she probably couldn't have done this, but that just meant she had to make herself better at this eventually.

From there she then also collected every single gun the mooks had on them, ranging from pistols to even machine guns. She had to wonder how exactly they were even getting the guns to begin with though. Like, did they have some mystical shop where villains could buy their grunts a large supply of guns on the cheap? If so someone should really stop that, but she digressed. Her perception went back to normal as she came back to the spot where she had started, the grunts looked very confused as to what had happened.

"Looking for these? Hahaha! Mere bullets are no match for me!" Crossing her arms she grinned widely.

"Aw shit. Everyone make a run for it!"

Immediately after one of the thugs said that, everyone scrambled to get away from her. Unfortunately enough for them they had decided to flee while in an alleyway, making them all a bunch of pins ready to be knocked down. Clenching her fist tightly, she decided that this would be a good opportunity to test out her new attack! Winding her fist back, her muscles tensed as an aura of wind wrapped around her entire forearm. Twisting as she punched forward, Taylor shouted the name of her attack.

"CHICAGOOO SMASH!"

A pressurized stream of wind shot from her fist as a loud concussive bang rang throughout the area. The blast of condensed wind hit the ABB thugs with the force of a truck, it was no surprise when they dropped to the ground groaning in pain. Her new attack was a success! Taylor had been trying to figure out a non-potentially lethal version of her Justice Smash to use to subdue people and this seemed to be just what she was looking for. Now the question was, how soon could she get the cops to come pick these guys up?

"Despite being a big ol' ham, I gotta say you do some good work."

"What?" Looking up towards the sound of the voice, she saw someone jump down from the roof above her.

The figure was dressed in an all black attire. The black cloak they wore fluttered behind them as they drifted down to stop in front of Taylor. Up close as she was, Taylor could see the skintight black bodysuit that the girl wore along with some metal kneepads, gauntlets, and a black mask in appearance of a stern but feminine face. This was Shadow Stalker, Taylor remembered this from her frequent research into the cape scene in Brockton. She was a former vigilante, a la Batman or Punisher, but got pulled in as a member of the Wards due to evidence that pointed towards her being a bit lethal if Talyor remembered correctly. Well, that was what she had found on the PHO boards anyway, but they could be wrong for all she knew.

"Shadow Stalker."

"Paragon."

"It's Captain Paragon! It's not the same without the Captain part."

"Uh huh, sure whatever you say Paragon. Anyways, just stopped by to see if the new hero was living up to her reputation."

"What reputation?"

"Oh, you haven't heard. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised, anyway the people back at base along with some idiots on PHO are hyping you up to be some sort of Alexandria or something. Armsmaster thinks it's bull, and has been explaining why he thinks you're more likely a Tinker or something and that your suit is what gives you powers. I think it's all shit either way, you have power plain and simple. You choose to fuck up Nazis, those Asian dickheads in the ABB, and other trash with your power and that's all there is to it. You just happen to also to choose to be some sort of hero as well." She shrugged as she finished her thoughts.

That was quite a bit of exposition Taylor noted, but more importantly apparently she had acquired a "reputation". Her plan of becoming a successful superhero was hitting another milestone and so soon too! If her power wasn't as useful as it was she definitely would of had to work much harder than she did now, but she wouldn't dwell too much on that thought. She was talking to a member of the Wards after all! A grumpy member, if the times she did the public stuff was any indication, but Shadow Stalker was a member of the Wards nonetheless. This meant that so long as she gave a good impression, Shadow Stalker could report back to her superiors and say how much of a good gal Captain Paragon was and how much she was helping which would get her some good PR with the local Protectorate which was a really good thing. Now how was she going to give the best possible impression here...?

"Hahaha! I suppose your view on things is one way to see it, however I believe that it is because I have this power that I should help people. It is easy to use power on people without and submit to your baser desires, but it is much harder to use it for the good of all. With great power comes great responsibility. Gyahaha!" Giving out a hearty laugh as she ended her impromptu response, Taylor thought that she totally nailed it.

"Spider-man, really? Figures you'd be a nerd, no way a normal person would say such cheesy crap unless they were nerds or a big fan of Mouse Protector, and from the looks of it you're probably both." Shadow Stalker said bluntly as she pulled out a phone. "I have a group of thugs down and mildly injured, nothing permanent. Location is around the south end of the Boardwalk area, in an alley near..." Looking around for a moment she continued. "A coffee shop called Ahnenerbe, probably German from the name. From the looks of it they planned on breaking and entering, or at least fire-bombing the place. Were taken down by the hero Captain Paragon."

Closing her phone she turned and regarded me for a moment with a stare in which Taylor wasn't sure she wasn't completely comfortable with before sprinting away, turning into another shadow of the night during that point. Taylor thought that overall her meeting with a Ward hadn't went too bad, in fact Shadow Stalker didn't even seem all that mean actually. She had even recognized the Spider-Man quote that Taylor had just been itching to use since she had started her hero career. Any hero that knew about Spider-Man couldn't be all that bad.

A loud crashing noise shook Taylor right out of her reverie, looking towards where it came from she saw that a dumpster had just hit a building at a speed that definitely wasn't normal. Looking further around a bit more, she saw that Shadow Stalker was currently fighting someone that was floating on top of a large piece of concrete. Looks like this night was getting just a little bit more hectic. It was time to be a hero!


	9. Reaction 2-2

**Reaction 2.2**

She weaved her way around the various debris that shot forth at her as she tried her hardest to get close enough so that she could knock out the villain who decided that it would be a good idea to attack a fellow hero! Whilst her superior speed made this easy, the hard part was safely making sure that the villain, Rune if she remembered her name correctly, did not end up dropping far enough and fast enough that she could not catch her in time. Floating on-top of a large girder that she must've gotten from some place nearby, Rune was able to launch pieces of debris at both her and Shadow Stalker while being able to move herself freely. It was a troublesome situation.

"Paragon," Shadowing through a hail of rocks that were shot forth like bullets, Shadow Stalker spoke. "Got any idea on how the hell we get Miss Sour Crout off her fucking platform without accidentally killing the bitch?"

"It's Captain Paragon," Taylor reminded her factually as she punched through a piece of concrete that was sent her way, "and no, I don't have a good idea just yet. However, I might be able to think of something soon. We just need to hold on for a bit, besides you called for back-up, right?"

"Yeah, but the chances of them getting here before the bitch's back-up gets here is slim. The Nazi's are like a fucking pack of rats, where there's one there's at least a couple more nearby."

Taylor nodded as she dodged another shower of rocks, as she thought about the weirdness of this attack. Villains didn't attack for just no reason, even people like the Joker had the vaguest of reasons for attacking a hero or anyone really. So, what was the reason for this attack? What did the E88 have to gain from this? Thinking about it, the only thing she had as a distinct point was that it could be a good idea to get rid of herself because she was an upstart or something. However, Rune had distinctively not attacked her until she had jumped into the fight and had tried to attack her.

Rune herself was something else weird she noted. During this entire fight she had this weird almost blank dreamy look in her eyes, like she wasn't really all there but was in a semi-lucid state currently. Was she not conscious of what she was doing? Maybe, maybe it was some sort of Master then? Someone was controlling Rune then, but who and why? Why would someone be targeting Shadow Stalker specifically and what did they gain from it if they managed to accomplish whatever their goal was in fighting her?

"Keep your head in the game, Paragon!"

Shadow Stalker's voice knocked Taylor out of her reverie just in time for another storm of rubble to be sent towards her. Rearing her fist back, Taylor punched.

"CHICAGO SMASH!"

The pressurized stream of wind that shot from her fist not only sent the rock flying but also annihilated the smaller pieces as a subsequent loud concussive bang rang throughout the area. The air stream continued going forward and pushed the girder Rune was standing on off-kilter a bit, however instead of wobbling she seemed to re-adjust herself in seconds. However, those seconds were all Taylor needed.

"Here we go!" Leaping hard enough for the concrete to actually _break_ underneath her feat in a straight leap towards Rune. "I have you now!"

There was no possible way for her to dodge, but Taylor noted as she approached at an almost bullet-like speed a menacing feeling coming from her. It was as she was within arm's reach that it happened.

Time stopped.

.  
M̶̳̺̠͉̘̲̞͈̈͋́͌͂́u̢͉̺̮͔̲͕͈̣̍̏̈́̆́͌̿̾͝ͅṣ̳͇̤̣̪̍̒̍̈̄̏̾t̜̩̙̖͔̥̾́͊̒̈  
̲̳͖̭̪̿͒̽̅̈̅̀͢I̴̡̗̯̺̫͕̠̋̏̎̄͆̌̈́̑͡͞  
̯̩̦̞͖̥͌͗̂̓̉̒̽̕͡D͎͇̪͚̗̟̻̟́̅͒͐͐͑ő̙͎͖̘̥̮͚̻͆̋̇́͠ͅͅ  
͙̖̯͎͖̓̇̓̑̾̉̎͗̉͟͝Ę͔̦̰͎̣̥̹̀̾̆̐̏͌͢͜v̵̢̭̘̖̪̤̇̆̒̏̓͊è̛̱̫̤̙̦̠̩̐̀́́̈́͗̎͘͜r̸̤̜̭̞̙̦̀͊͐͑̏̃͞y̸̛̳̤̰̻̹͖̺̌̌͑́̀͂̚͜͡t̷͓̖̟̭̣̃̽̾̂̚h̴̛̻͎̭̻͍͚͍̆͋̉͘͢ị̝̲̈̀̈́̊̈̽͘͢͠͞͝ͅn̨̢͍̳̘̂̐͛̂̊̄̾̌̍̕g̷̛͔̜̻̩̪͕̈́̿͐͗̂̚̚͘͠  
̴͚̰̮̫̺͎̿̀͂̾̆͘͡M̵̨̛͕̤̰̼̲̣̤̽̀̎̽̈̆̀̃͑͟͜y̲̗̟̰͍͑̓̆̊̆̇͟ͅş̨̝̟͈̹̣͐͐̂́̇̐̃͗͆͡ē̡̤̥͓͈̰͔͈͉̍́͗͝ļ̧̤̣͉̣̙͗͆̋͊̕ͅf̵̥̣̯͖͈͚͍̃̑͐͗͗͢͟͠ͅ?

"W-what?" Shooting forward she realized that Rune was no longer in front of her and quickly tried to slow herself down by pushing a wave of air from her hands but was too late as she slammed into the building, her body making a sizable imprint in it. "Owww, what just happened? I was sure I had her..."

"Hey, Paragon! I could a bit of fucking help!" The loud voice of Shadow Stalker reminded her that the fight was still apparently on, shenanigans or otherwise. Looking towards where Rune was she seemed to have a storm of rocks whipping around her body in circle pattern while launching rocks at Shadow Stalker like they were bullets from the safety of a giant piece of concrete floating in the sky, the way Stalker seemed to be limping as she dodged and launched darts at Rune she had to have been hit already.

Think Taylor, you can tank bullets are super fast and super strong, so what's the best way to take someone down that can fight you at a range like this? You have to get past a literal storm of rocks that are going fast enough that they'd probably give bullets a run for their money, grab the girl whose doing this and then not let her touch anything else while also trying to knock her out. Take a deep breath...now think!

Running towards Shadow Stalker, she dodged the myriad of rocks that struck at her by outpacing them and weaving around the ones that seemed to be getting closer to her. She had a plan, sort of. Taylor wasn't sure that it would work but it was all she had right now. Skidding to astp in front of Shadow Stalker she pushed both her hands forward in front of them a launched a pulse of wind at Rune, knocking away the rock that weren't currently around her.

Touching Shadow Stalker's crossbow for a moment she yelled.

"Fire at her now!"

Firing the currently loaded dart, Shadow Stalker was surprised that as the dart launched forth at Rune it went through the rocks and clipped her side. The effects were almost immediate as seconds later, Rune seemed to falter with her onslaught the tranquilizer in the darts quickly taking affect as Rune swayed a bit. Seeing her opportunity, Taylor rushed forward and grabbed her off the girder being careful to make sure she didn't incidentally hurt her more than necessary. Coming to a stop from the leap she made to grab her, she leaped in surprise at the loud bang of the giant piece of concrete smashing against the ground along with hundred of rocks.

Shifting Rune onto her shoulder, Taylor gawked a bit at all the collateral damage she had caused. Indirectly for the most part, but still...

"What'd you do to my bow? I had been trying to make the shot throughout the entire fight but she either dodged or kept shooting those fucking rocks at me, but you touch my bow and the suddenly Miss Nazi Girl Scout drops in seconds." Even with the limp in her step, Shadow Stalker still seemed to hold herself with a certain aggressiveness.

"Well, I gave it a sort of temporary accuracy boost. It was pretty much guaranteed to hit, even if you somehow winded up messing the shot though the possibility for error would've been larger."

"So, is it gonna linger or something?"

"Nope! Probably. I was thinking of something temporary when I boosted your bow, but I haven't actually tested something like this before so who knows?" Taylor finished with a sheepish look.

"Hmm, well it'll be useful at least. To think you were some goofy hero, guess even idiots can be useful."

"Whatever Shadow Stalker, you're just mad Captain Paragon is more popular than Shadow Stalker." Taylor said striking a heroic pose.

"Hah! You wish. Anyways, this was...cool. I guess, you weren't the worse person I've had to spend time with. I should get going, Armsmaster will probably get a thicker stick up his ass if I don't report in soon."

"Yeah, we can talk later!"

"Yeah, whatever."

A whoosh of air was all the warning they got as the steel girder from before rose and shot forward. Seeing where it was aimed at, Taylor yelled but was moments too late.

"Shadow Stalker, move!"

"Wha-"

It came as a surprise to both her and Taylor when suddenly a large girder slammed into her face, the maddened laughter of Rune echoing in the air.

"Heeheehee, looks like she...lost her head~! No...more...So-phi-a." Rune giggled to herself, even as she slumped over seconds later as the tranquilizer finally knocked her out for real.

 _ **Taylor could only stare in shock.**_


End file.
